A sales lead includes a name or other indicia of identity (e.g., a phone number, mailing address or email address) of a person or business that may have an interest in purchasing a product or service. A sales lead provides a starting point for a salesperson to further develop the lead by marketing a specific vendor's product or service. The salesperson develops the sales lead by gathering information about the potential customer and providing the customer with information about the vendor. This mutual exchange of information helps the salesperson to persuade the potential customer to purchase a product or service from the vendor. If the customer makes a purchase, the salesperson has converted the sales lead into a sales transaction. A sales lead with a high probability of being converted into a sales transaction is considered a good lead.
Data mining can assist in generating sales leads by finding patterns in information gathered about customers. In the past, vendors have used data mining to match potential customers to products. While this is helpful, a lead itself possesses no measure of success in terms of converting the lead into a sale. There may be other factors that figure into the success of a lead which are not presently accounted for. Moreover, there is no model for accounting for these other factors.